Mobile payment systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A method includes providing a first payment account that is issued by a first financial institution and enables an accountholder thereof to make payments at merchants via a closed-loop payments network corresponding to the first financial institution and mobile person-to-person payments using the payment account. The method includes enabling a second payment account that is issued by a second financial institution to be electronically linked to the first payment account and used as a source of funds. The method includes providing a mobile operating system and enabling a plurality of merchant-specific payment accounts to be associated with a mobile communications device having the operating system. The method includes determining whether a merchant-specific payment account that is accepted only by a particular merchant is available to the accountholder via the mobile communications device and receiving a fee when the first payment account is used for a purchase.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation, and claims priority benefit withregard to all common subject matter, of earlier-filed U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/961,120, filed Dec. 7, 2015, and entitled“MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS” (“the '120 application”). The '120application is a continuation, and claims priority benefit with regardto all common subject matter, of earlier-filed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/554,586, filed Jul. 20, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,235,831,issued Jan. 12, 2016, and entitled “MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS”(“the '831 patent”). The '831 patent is a continuation, and claimspriority benefit with regard to all common subject matter, ofearlier-filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/964,378, filed Dec. 9,2010, and entitled “METHODS FOR ENROLLING IN A PAYMENT ACCOUNT ANDPROCESSING A PURCHASE TRANSACTION,” (“the '378 application”). The '378application is a continuation, and claims priority benefit with regardto all common subject matter, of earlier-filed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/956,822, filed Nov. 30, 2010, and entitled “METHODS FORALLOCATING RISK AND FEES IN MOBILE PAYMENTS” (“the '822 application”).The '822 application is a continuation-in-part, and claims prioritybenefit with regard to all common subject matter, of earlier-filed U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/902,798, filed Oct. 12, 2010, andentitled “METHODS FOR ALLOCATING RISK AND FEES IN MOBILE PAYMENTS” (“the'798 application”). The '798 application is a continuation-in-part, andclaims priority benefit with regard to all common subject matter, ofearlier-filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/428,282, filed Apr.22, 2009, and entitled “SYSTEMS, METHODS AND DEVICES FOR FACILITATINGMOBILE PAYMENTS.” The identified earlier-filed non-provisional patentapplications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety intothe present application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to systems, methods and devicesfor facilitating a value exchange. More particularly, the presentinvention relates to systems, methods and devices for facilitatingpayments made with a mobile wireless communications device.

Mobile payments systems, methods and devices for enablingperson-to-person, remote or local purchases are known. For example,person-to-person wireless payments may be made using wireless messaging(such as SMS), remote payments may be made using the wireless Internet,and local proximity payments made at a point-of-sale terminal inproximity to the mobile device may be made using a radio-frequencyidentification device, such as may be implemented using Near FieldCommunications (NFC) technology, in the mobile wireless communicationsdevice. Known mobile payments systems, methods and devices may be foundin U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,583 B1, assigned to the assignee of the presentinventions, and incorporated herein by reference.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides decoupled payment systems, methods anddevices that enable an accountholder of a first account associated withthe mobile device, its operating system, or a wireless serviceassociated with the mobile device (i.e., the mobile payment account) toassociate a second, preferred bank deposit account (known as a DemandDeposit Account or DDA) of the accountholder with the first mobilepayment account. In particular, the present invention provides systems,methods and devices that enable an issuer of the mobile payment accountto authorize a purchase transaction made with the first account via amobile wireless communications device and to then separately retrievefunds for the purchase via a separate transaction, such as via theAutomated Clearing House (ACH) network from the DDA of theaccountholder, such that the issuer of the mobile payment account hasthe money available to settle the purchase transaction made with themobile payment account. In other words, the mobile payment account ofthe present invention is decoupled from the Demand Deposit Account (DDA)of the accountholder.

According to one aspect of the invention, a mobile wirelesscommunications device and/or service user enrolls in a decoupled debitprogram provided by or in association with a wireless carrier, mobiledevice manufacturer, and/or mobile operating system provider. Theenrollment process includes entry by the user of a preferred paymentaccount that is associated with a mobile payment account provided by orin association with the wireless carrier, mobile device manufacturer, ormobile operating system provider. In one embodiment, the user enters anidentifier corresponding to his or her debit card number as the secondpayment account to be associated with the mobile payment account. Such adebit card number may be a number provided by an open-loop paymentnetwork provider, such as Visa or MasterCard, or a closed-loop networkprovider such as American Express or Discover. Alternatively, the userenters an identifier corresponding directly to his her demand depositaccount, such as a bank routing number and account number.

According to the invention, when a user uses his or her mobilecommunications device to make a purchase, an identifier corresponding tothe mobile payment account is wirelessly transmitted to the point ofsale terminal (such as by NFC for a local proximity payment) or to aremote server for an online purchase (such as by the Internet). Theidentifier is transmitted to the issuer of the mobile payment accountfor authorization. Depending on the embodiment of the invention, suchtransmission may be sent directly to the issuer via a merchant acquireror may be sent by way of an additional payment processor or networkprovider. Additionally, the acquirer and/or processor and/or issuer mayconduct risk analysis, such as fraud analysis or insufficient fundsrisk. Upon authorization, an authorization signal is transmitted back tothe point of sale terminal, which authorization signal may transmitdirectly to the merchant acquirer or via a payments processor ornetwork, depending upon the embodiment of the invention.

Additionally, the issuer of the mobile payments account receivesinformation indicative of the merchant at which the transaction is beingmade as well as the monetary amount of the transaction. Additionally,the issuer of the mobile payments account retrieves from a memory of asystem of the present invention the identifier corresponding to his orher second payment account. Using that identifier, the issuer of themobile payments account then automatically initiates, via the ACHnetwork, a request for funds corresponding to the monetary amount of thetransaction from the demand deposit account corresponding to the secondaccount identifier. The funds are transferred from the accountholder'sDDA to the issuer of the mobile decoupled payments account where thefunds are available for settlement of the purchase transaction. Uponreceipt by the issuer of the mobile payments account of an electronicsettlement request, the funds corresponding to the purchase transaction,discounted by any fee charged by the issuer of the mobile paymentsaccount, are transmitted from the issuer of the mobile payments accountfor deposit in a bank account of the merchant. Additional fees may betaken from the amount to be deposited by a merchant acquirer and,depending upon the embodiment of the invention, any additional paymentsprocessor/network in the flow of processing.

More specifically, in one embodiment of the present invention the mobilepayments account is a debit account that is associated with an open- orclosed-loop payments processor/network, such as Visa, MasterCard,American Express or Discover. Payments made using such networks includefees, including an interchange fee charged by the issuer of the accountwhich, in the case of this embodiment of the present invention, is (oris affiliated with) a wireless carrier or mobile device manufacturer.When the accountholder of the mobile payments account uses his or hermobile payments account to make a purchase, such as by using his or hermobile device in one of the manners described, an identifier thatidentifies the payment network associated with the account is stored inthe mobile device and is transmitted to the point of sale terminal orserver at which a purchase is being made. That identifier, preferablyalong with information that identifies the merchant and the monetaryamount of the purchase, is received by a merchant acquirer whoidentifies the corresponding network by the identifier and transmits theinformation to the payments network (such as Visa or MasterCard).Alternatively, the identifier in the mobile device identifies the deviceitself (or the mobile subscriber) and that identifier is used (such asat the merchant acquirer) to identify a corresponding payments networkand account number/identifier. The payment is authorized or declined (bythe network/processor or by transmitting it to the issuer of the mobilepayments account who authorizes or declines the purchase) and a signalindicating the authorization or denial is sent back to the point-of-saleterminal.

In accordance with the invention, the issuer of the mobile paymentsaccount receives the information regarding the purchase and, for anapproved transaction, initiates a request, via the ACH network, to pullfunds from the DDA associated with the decoupled mobile payments debitaccount. Upon receipt of the funds, they are held available forsettlement of the purchase transaction. The purchase transaction is thensettled, such as by receipt at the mobile decoupled payments accountissuer of an electronic settlement request (that may have been initiatedvia a batch file from the merchant acquirer of the merchant at which thepurchase transactions was made) and the transaction is settled bytransmitting funds from the issuer of the mobile payments account to abank account of the merchant (minus any fees charged by the mobilepayments account issuer or affiliated entities).

In an alternate embodiment, the decoupled mobile payments account is anACH-direct account such that purchases made with the mobile device usingthe mobile payments account are processed directly through the ACHnetwork. In particular, in this embodiment, the wireless subscriber orowner of the mobile device associates a Demand Deposit Account (DDA)directly with the mobile payments account, such as by entering a bankrouting number and account number upon enrollment. When making apurchase using the mobile device, an identifier indicative of the mobilepayments account is transferred to the point-of-sale (POS) terminal(such as by NFC) or to the remote server (such as by the wirelessInternet) at which the purchase transaction is being made.Alternatively, an identifier indicative of the mobile phone or mobilesubscriber is stored in the phone and transmitted to the POS terminal orserver and that identifier is then associated with the mobile paymentsaccount (such as at the merchant acquirer by retrieval from a databaseof the mobile payments account information corresponding to the receivedidentifier).

In this embodiment, using the received identifier indicative of themobile phone, subscriber or mobile payments account, a merchant acquirerautomatically determines the mobile payments account issuer andtransmits the information regarding the attempted purchase directly tothe issuer of the decoupled mobile payments account. The mobile paymentsaccount issuer accepts or declines the transaction (which decision maybe made using risk assessment processes) and transmits a signal back tothe merchant acquirer regarding approval or declination of the purchasetransaction. When the transaction is approved, the decoupled mobilepayments account issuer initiates an ACH transaction, such as via an ACHclearing house, to pull funds corresponding to the amount of thepurchase from the DDA associated with the decoupled mobile paymentsaccount. Upon receipt of those funds by the mobile payments accountissuer (or affiliated entity), the funds are held available forsettlement of the purchase transaction. Upon receipt of a settlementrequest, the mobile payments account issuer electronically releases therequested settlement amount corresponding to the purchase transaction(minus any fees) for deposit in a bank account of the merchant.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the settlementprocess involves the merchant acquirer (or merchant) transmitting thesettlement data to a bank of the merchant, referred to herein as aReceiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI), who initiates an ACHtransaction for the funds from the mobile payments account issuer. Themonetary funds corresponding to the amount of the purchase transaction(minus any fees/charges applied by the mobile payments account issuerand/or the ACH network/processor) are transmitted to a bank account ofthe merchant at the merchant's bank (RDFI).

In an alternative embodiment, settlement of a mobile payments purchasetransaction is made, such as in response to a settlement instructionreceived from the merchant or merchant acquirer, using an ACH pushtransaction in which the mobile payments account issuer, using theinformation received regarding the purchase transaction andaccountholder's DDA account information, initiates an ACH credittransaction with the merchant's bank thus debiting the mobile paymentsaccount and crediting the merchant's bank account with fundscorresponding to the purchase transaction (discounted by any appliedfees).

It yet another ACH-direct embodiment of the invention, purchasetransaction information is transmitted from the merchant acquirer to themerchant's financial institution and the merchant's financialinstitution initiates an ACH transaction process with mobile decoupledaccount issuer. Upon receipt, the mobile decoupled debit issuer holdsthat transaction and initiates an ACH transaction with theaccountholder's DDA at the accountholder's financial institution for theamount of the purchase transaction. Following receipt of the funds, theheld purchase transaction with the merchant's financial institution issettled.

In further embodiments of the invention, the mobile decoupled paymentsaccount may be associated with additional accounts, such asmerchant-specific payment accounts. Each merchant-specific paymentaccount is accepted only by the merchant corresponding to themerchant-specific payment account. Additionally, the mobile paymentsaccount itself can hold money. In accordance with the invention, anaccountholder can fund his or her mobile payments account via a personalcomputer connected to the Internet or directly from the mobile deviceusing his or her bank account, debit account or a credit account.Additionally, the accountholder can fund a merchant-specific paymentaccount with a money transfer from the mobile payments account or fromhis or her bank account, debit account or credit account. Additionally,the mobile payment account can be used to make and receiveperson-to-person transfers such that money paid or given to theaccountholder can be transferred directly into the mobile paymentsaccount. Additionally, others may transmit gift money directly to aspecified merchant specific account associated with the mobile paymentsaccount.

In accordance with certain embodiments of the invention, when thedecoupled mobile payments account is used to make a purchase transactionat a merchant, it is first determined whether a merchant-specificaccount corresponding to the merchant is associated with the decoupledmobile payments account. When such a merchant-specific account isassociated with the mobile payments account and has funds (or hassufficient funds, depending on the embodiment) the merchant-specificaccount is used in processing the purchase transaction. When amerchant-specific account corresponding to the merchant at which thepurchase transaction is being made is not associated with the mobilepayments account (or it has insufficient funds, depending on theembodiment), it is determined whether the mobile payments account itselfholds available funds (or holds sufficient available funds, depending onthe embodiment). When the mobile payments account has available funds(or sufficient available funds), it is used in processing the purchasetransaction. Otherwise, or additionally, a default account (such as adebit account corresponding to a Demand Deposit Account, a DemandDeposit Account directly, or a credit account) is used to process thetransaction. It should be understood that certain embodiments of theinvention enable split transactions which enable processing of thepurchase transaction to use multiple accounts, such as when amerchant-specific account and/or the mobile payments account hasavailable funds to process the purchase transaction but those funds areinsufficient to settle the purchase transaction in its entirety.Alternatively, processing of the purchase transaction may use amerchant-specific account or the mobile payments account only when thoseaccounts are sufficiently funded with available money to fully settlethe purchase transaction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system and system environment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile communications device ofthe present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating enrollment and activation of amobile decoupled payments account of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of computer-implemented methods forfacilitating a value exchange and particularly authorizing and settlinga mobile payments transaction;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a value exchange transactionaccording to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a value exchange transactionaccording to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a value exchange transactionaccording to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic representation of a mobile decoupled paymentsaccount of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of further embodiments of a mobiledecoupled payments account of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a computer-implemented mobiledecoupled payments method of exchanging value according to embodimentsof the invention; and

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a method of embodiments of thepresent invention for allocating risk and a fee.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference initially to FIG. 1, systems and operating environmentsof the present invention are denoted generally by reference numeral 10.Illustrated are a mobile wireless communications device 12, a merchantpoint-of-sale (POS) terminal 14, a merchant acquirer 16, a merchantfinancial institution (FI) 18 of the merchant associated with themerchant POS 14, a mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20, anAutomated Clearing House (ACH) processor 22, a financial institution(FI) 24 of the accountholder purchaser associated with mobile device 12or a wireless carrier service associated with device 12, a networkpayments processor 26, and a communications network 28.

Mobile wireless communications device 12 may be any or a combination ofa wide variety of mobile wireless communications devices, such as acellular telephone, mobile media device, mobile Wi-Fi or WiMaxcommunications device, satellite radio, mobile voice-over-IP (VOIP)device, etc. Merchant POS terminal 14 is, in one embodiment involvinglocal proximity payments made with a mobile device 12, a check-outterminal at a retail location or a vending machine, fuel pump, etc. inphysical proximity to the user and his or her mobile device 12.Alternatively, merchant POS terminal 14 may be a remote server for usingin making online purchases with mobile device 12. In some but notnecessarily all embodiments of the invention when merchant POS terminal14 is a POS terminal at a physical retail store in proximity to thebuyer, merchant POS terminal employs an IP address and transactions madeat the POS terminal 14 are processed as online transactions even whenmade in a physical retail store. It should be understood, however, thatthis is a feature of one embodiment of the present invention and thepresent invention is not limited to such an embodiment or to transactinglocal in-store transactions as online transactions. Merchant Acquirer 16is a merchant acquirer that processes payments transactions and providespayments-related services to the merchant associated with merchant POS14. Merchant financial institution (FI) 18 is a financial institution,such as a bank, at which the merchant associated with POS terminal 14has a bank account. Mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 is anissuer of a mobile payments account that is decoupled from a paymentsaccount (such as a DDA) of the user held at the accountholder'sfinancial institution (FI) 24. Mobile decoupled payments account issuer20 may be a mobile carrier, a manufacturer of mobile devices, a providerof a mobile operating system, a combination of such entities, or anaffiliate or associate of, or financial institution or paymentstransmitter relating to, such entities. ACH Processor 22 is an ACHclearinghouse for processing ACH payments. FI 24 is a financialinstitution, such as a bank, at which the user of mobile device 12 has aDemand Deposit Account (DDA). The Demand Deposit Account is a bankaccount in which the accountholder deposits monetary funds and fromwhich the accountholder can make payments for purchases. As describedherein, the account at FI 24 may be accessible for payments via a debitaccount (such as a debit card number) associated with a network paymentsprocessor 26, such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover, ormay be accessible directly via an ACH transaction.

As illustrated, mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 employs asystem 30 which utilizes at least one server 32, a database 34, a memory36, and communications capability 38. It will be understood andappreciated that, although not shown, the Merchant Acquirer 16, MerchantFI 18, ACH Processor 22, accountholder's FI 24, and network paymentsprocessor 26 also employ servers with databases, memory andcommunications capability. Communications Network 28 may be any of, orany combination of, a wide-area or local area landline or wirelessnetwork, such as a telecommunications network, the Internet, acable-network, fiber-optics network, satellite network, cellular networkmay employ and support any or a variety of communications and encryptionprotocols for secure communications. It should also be understood thatcommunications network(s) 12 is/are shown illustratively as a cloud andthat the communications network(s) 12 and that processing of purchasetransactions according to the present invention may involve use ofseparate networks.

With additional reference to FIG. 2, mobile communications device 12 isillustrated and described.

Mobile device 12 may be one or a combination of a number of devices,such as a cellular telephone, mobile communications device thatcommunicates via a wireless local area network (such as Wi-Fi or WiMax),a mobile digital media player, voice-over-IP (VOIP) mobilecommunications device, etc. Mobile device 12 has a processor 40, adisplay 42, an input 44, a memory 45, a microphone 46, a speaker 47, atransmitter/receiver 48 with antenna 50, such as a cellular transceiveror local-area (such as Wi-Fi or Wi-Max) transceiver (the device 12 couldhave multiple transceivers operating on different RF frequencies), and atransmitter 52 with antenna 54, such as a radio frequency identificationdevice (RFID). Transmitter 52 may operate according to Near FieldCommunications (NFC) standards. It should be understood that input 44may be a key pad or touch screen (or the device could have both) and/orthe device could utilize voice recognition to process vocal inputs madevia microphone 46. In some embodiments, mobile device 12 may not haveall of these components and in other embodiments additional components,such as a GPS receiver and/or digital camera, will be included. Thecomponents of mobile device 12 are powered by a battery, such as arechargeable battery (not shown), all of which are housed in a housing(although device 12, depending on the embodiment, may include externalspeakers in the form of ear buds and/or external microphone on aheadset).

A mobile payments software application is stored in memory 45 of themobile device 12. Mobile payments software application may be integratedwith an operating system of the mobile device or run on top of such anoperating system. The mobile payments software application may comepre-loaded on the mobile device 12 or may be user-loaded onto the mobiledevice, such as by side-loading it from a personal computer that hasdownloaded the mobile payments software application from a remotesource, such as server 32, or by wirelessly downloading the mobilepayments application directly onto the mobile device from a remotesource such as server 32.

With additional reference to FIG. 3, a flow chart illustrating acomputer implemented enrollment method for enrolling an accountholderinto a mobile decoupled payment account of the present invention isillustrated and described.

At step 56, a person associated with mobile device 12 initiatesenrollment into mobile decoupled payment account of the presentinvention. In one embodiment, the person is a subscriber of wirelesscarrier services from a wireless service provider and the mobile device12 is a handset that employs the carrier's wireless service. Enrollmentinto the mobile decoupled payment program of the present invention maytake place online via a personal computer of the person or directly viathe mobile device 12, such as via a hosted application that is hosted onserver 32 at mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20, or may be madewith the help of a remote operator, or may be made with the help of astore clerk at a store provided by or in association with the decoupledpayment account issuer 20. The mobile decoupled payments account issuer20 is preferably a, or associated with a, wireless carrier, a mobiledevice maker, or a provider of operating system software for mobiledevices.

At step 58, a unique user identification is assigned to the enrollingaccountholder. In one embodiment, this unique user identification is, orcorresponds to, an account identifier (such as a telephone number orsubscriber account number) associated with a wireless subscriptionprovided to the enrolling person via mobile device 12. Alternatively,the mobile device 12 comes equipped with a unique identifier and, duringenrollment, the enrolling person is assigned that unique identifierafter identifying the specific mobile device being enrolled (such as byentry of a telephone number, account number, or serial number of mobiledevice 12) or after identifying the subscription service account whichis then in turn used to retrieve the specific mobile device 12 of theuser and its corresponding unique identifier. In this regard, database34 may already contain information pertaining to the wirelesssubscription account of the enrolling party (including name, address,customer bank account information, telephone number associated withmobile device 12, the identity of mobile device 12 including modelnumber and serial number), and that information or a portion of thatinformation can be retrieved during the enrollment process for thepurpose of aiding the process and assigning a unique identifier to theenrolling accountholder.

At step 60, the person enrolling into the mobile decoupled paymentsprogram of the present invention is prompted to enter a payment accountfor association with mobile payments account and, in particular, forassociation with the unique user identifier assigned at step 58. Inparticular, in one embodiment of the invention, the enrolling person isoffered a choice of entering a debit account number, such as a Visa orMasterCard debit card or account number, or a bank account number (suchas a bank routing number and account number). In alternate embodiments,only one or the other of these choices is given. In any event, theenrolling person enters an identifier that corresponds, either directlyor indirectly, with his or her Demand Deposit Account (DDA) at afinancial institution 24 at which the person has money on deposit.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a subscriber to mobilecarrier services of a carrier may be prompted to enroll in the mobilepayments account of the present invention when making an online paymentof an invoice from the carrier. In particular, in one embodiment, when acustomer is making a payment of a carrier's invoice (such as for avoice, data or voice/data plan) at a website of the carrier, the websiteoffers the subscriber the opportunity to enroll in the payment accountof the present invention. The offer may include information regardingthe terms of enrollment and use of the account and/or may link toadditional pages of the carrier's website or a related website toprovide such terms and complete enrollment. In particular, the onlineenrollment system of the invention may provide an inquiry concerningwhether the subscriber wishes to use the DDA being used to make paymentas an account coupled with the mobile payment account of the presentinvention. Additionally, the subscriber's DDA being used to make onlinepayment of the carrier invoice may be automatically placed in a fieldfor entry of account information (with the system providing the abilityof the subscriber to change the entered DDA with a different account).

It should be understood that, in a variation of this aspect of theinvention, online bill payment for payment of a carrier's invoice may beinitiated from the website of a financial institution corresponding tothe DDA or from a website of a third-party payment service. It will beappreciated that the offer to enroll in the mobile payment account ofthe present invention may be made at such sites and that either thefinancial institution or the third party bill payment service may handlethe enrollment process for the carrier. Alternatively, when bill paymentis initiated from a website of a financial institution or bill paymentservice, the customer is linked to a website of the carrier (or carrierpayments partner/service provider) when the customer selects to enrollin the mobile payment account of the invention or to receive additionalinformation about the program. In such a case, information (such asaccount number) indicative of the DDA is preferably transmitted with therequest for enrollment or request for additional information so that itis available for use in online enrollment (including automaticpopulation in an entry field for an account number to couple with themobile payments account into which the subscriber is enrolling orconsidering). It will be appreciated that a user's selection of an offerto enroll in a mobile payments account when making a bill payment mayoccur before or after the bill payment has been completed. It will beappreciated that information pertaining to the DDA may be stored in thesession such that it is transmitted for mobile payment accountenrollment purposes even after the bill payment has been concluded.Additionally, it should be understood that all information storage,website communications and transmissions, including transmissions fromone server to another server via one or more networks employ securityfeatures including encryption.

In an alternate embodiment, enrollment into a payments account of thepresent invention is prompted from a website featuring an online savingsprogram or brokerage services. In this regard, direct savings programsoffered and accessible via an online website are known to enableelectronic transfer of money from a bank account (Demand Deposit Account(DDA)) of an accountholder to the savings account. In accordance withthe invention, information indicative of the DDA of the accountholderthat is available to the source of the savings program may be used toenroll an accountholder into a payments account of the presentinvention. As described above, an offer or information describing thepayments account may be provided on a web page corresponding to thedirect deposit account (or enrollment into the direct deposit account).Entry by the account holder of information corresponding to a DDA (suchas bank routing number and account number) may also be used to associatethe accountholders DDA to a new payments account. Additionally, suchinformation entered for purposes of a direct savings program may beautomatically populated in one or more fields corresponding to thepayments account of the present invention.

Additionally, a brokerage with online offerings may offer itsaccountholders the ability to transfer money from a brokerage account toa DDA of the accountholder. In accordance with the invention,information concerning the DDA of the accountholder that is used for thepurpose of electronically transferring money to or from an onlinebrokerage account may be used to enroll in the payments account of thepresent invention. As already described, offers and information relatingto the payments account may be provided on a webpage of the onlinebrokerage and information input by the accountholder for brokerage ormoney transfer purposes may be used during enrollment into the paymentsaccount of the present invention (such as retrieval of such informationfrom a memory, display on a display, population into one or more fields,etc.) for associating the DDA with the new payments account. In any ofthese embodiments, the provider of the payments account of the presentinvention may offer rewards in the form of cash-back or points accrualfor redemption of items where such rewards are funded at least in partfrom fees (such as interchange or interchange-like fees) generated byuse of the payments account of the present invention.

At step 62, the decoupled mobile payments account is validated. This mayoccur, for example, by making one or more automatic entries (creditsand/or debits) of small amounts into the Demand Deposit Account via thedecoupled mobile payments account for subsequent confirmation by theaccountholder. Account validation may occur in other manners.

At step 64, upon validation, the decoupled mobile payments account isactivated and is ready for use by the now enrolled accountholder.Activation may be purely a server side function, such as when the uniqueidentifier associated with the mobile payments account is pre-stored inthe mobile device, or may include a client (mobile device 12) sideactivation step which involves server 32 transmitting an encryptedmessage containing the assigned mobile payments account identifier todevice 12 for storage in memory 45 and use by the mobile paymentsapplication stored in device 12. In either event, embodiments of theinvention preferably include transmitting a wireless welcome message(such as an SMS message) from server 32 to mobile device 12, whichmessage may include instructions for use of the new mobile decoupledpayments account.

With additional reference to FIGS. 4-7, computer-implemented methods andrelated systems for authorizing and settling payments made with thedecoupled mobile payments account of the present invention areillustrated and described. As used herein in the context of a financialvalue exchange transaction according to the embodiments of theinvention, the term debit means the money, or a record of the money,withdrawn from a bank account and the term credit means the money, or arecord of the money, deposited to a bank account.

With reference to FIG. 4, at step 66, mobile decoupled payments accountprovider 20 (or an entity associated with the decoupled payments accountprovider 20) receives at server 32 a request to approve a purchasetransaction made at merchant POS terminal 14. At step 68, server 32 usescomputer-implemented risk assessment models to determine a level of riskassociated with approving the transaction. Such risk assessment modelsmay take into account transaction history (including whether theaccountholder had sufficient funds in its DDA account for priortransactions to make transactions), the location and amount of thepurchase, credit rating, etc. Alternatively, the risk assessment is madeat another location or entity and a result is transmitted to decoupledmobile payments account issuer 20. At step 70, a computer-implementeddecision is made to approve or deny the purchase transaction based uponthe risk assessment made or received at step 68. A message indicative ofthe decision to approve or deny the transaction is transmitted back topoint of sale terminal 14 at corresponding step 70A or 70B.

For an approved purchase transaction, as indicated at step 72,information indicative of the mobile payments accountholder's DDA atfinancial institution (FI) 24 is retrieved from database 34 and, at step74, mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 initiates an ACHtransaction to credit the mobile payments account with an amount offunds, from the accountholder's DDA account, corresponding to thepurchase amount of the purchase transaction at POS terminal 14. Inaddition to a monetary amount associated with the purchase transaction,according to an aspect of the invention, information provided to theaccountholder's financial institution (FI) 24 during the ACH transactionincludes information pertaining to the purchase transaction, such as theidentity of the merchant at which the transaction is made and dateand/or time information associated with the transaction. In this way,the accountholder's bank statement from financial institution (FI) 24will indicate at least mobile payments account issuer 20 as well as themerchant identity and monetary amount of the purchase transaction andpreferably also the date associated with the purchase transaction.

At step 76, the funds are received at the decoupled mobile paymentsaccount issuer 20 via the ACH processor 22 and held until settlementinstructions corresponding to the purchase transaction are received.Alternatively, a message indicating that there are insufficient funds tomake the transfer is received. At step 78, decoupled mobile paymentsaccount issuer 20 updates risk assessment data relative to theaccountholder based upon whether sufficient funds for settling thetransaction were received. The updated data is used in risk assessmentmethodology during a subsequent use of the mobile payments account. Atstep 80, decoupled mobile payments issuer 20 electronically receivessettlement instructions from the merchant acquirer 16 or merchantassociated with the POS terminal 14 and, as indicated at step 82,decoupled mobile payments account issuer 20 participates in settlementof the purchase transaction. In particular, the mobile payments accountof the accountholder is debited and, correspondingly, the merchant'sbank account at Merchant Financial Institution (FI) 18 is credited witha corresponding amount minus any fees charged by issuer 20 and anyothers, such as merchant acquirer 16 and possibly network paymentprocessor 26 and/or ACH processor 22 or others in the processing chain.In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the mobile decoupledpayments account issuer 20 of the present invention bears the risk ofpayment and settlement occurs even if the DDA at Financial Institution24 had insufficient funds for the purchase transaction.

With reference now to FIG. 5, process and information flow inembodiments of the present invention in which the decoupled mobilepayments account of the present invention is associated with a networkpayment processor such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discoverare illustrated and described. In particular, the information flowpresented in FIG. 5 occurs via the systems and operating environment 10including communications network(s) 28 illustrated in FIG. 1 when themobile payments accountholder enrolled into the mobile decoupledpayments account with a debit account such as a debit card number.

Mobile device 12 transmits an identifier to merchant POS terminal 14 asindicated at step 5A. As will be understood from the foregoing, suchtransmission may be to a remote POS terminal 14 or to a local POSterminal in proximity to the mobile device 12 (such as with NFC). Asindicated by step 5B, information pertaining to the purchasetransaction, such as merchant information, the monetary amount of thepurchase transaction, and the identifier transmitted from the mobiledevice 12 is sent to the merchant acquirer 16 for the purpose ofauthorizing the purchase transaction. Merchant acquirer 16 receives theinformation and, based upon the identifier transmitted from the mobiledevice (such as possibly by a first numerical digit of the identifier),determines the identity of the network payments processor 26 andtransmits payment information to the network payments processor 26 (step5C). For example, if the decoupled mobile payment account of the presentinvention is a Visa account, the networks payment processor 26 is Visaand the payment information is transmitted to Visa, where mobiledecoupled payments account issuer 20 is identified based upon theidentifier.

At step 5D, the network payments processor 26 transmits the transactioninformation to mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20. Inaccordance with the invention, a risk assessment on the purchasetransaction is performed using a computer-implemented risk assessmentmethod. The risk assessment may utilize a variety of information(including but not limited to general transaction history of thecustomer accountholder, recent transaction history on the account, theamount of the transaction, the location of the transaction, etc.) tomake a determination of whether the purchase transaction carries morethan a desired risk, such as risk of fraud or insufficient funds. Therisk assessment methodology may be implemented on one or more servers atthe merchant acquirer 16, payments network processor 26, or mobiledecoupled payments account issuer 20. Based upon the risk assessment, anelectronic message approving or denying the transaction is sent tomerchant POS terminal 14. As illustrated, such a message is sent frommobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 via network processor 26(step 5E) to merchant acquirer 16 (step 5F) and on to the merchant POSterminal 14 (step 5G) for output at the POS terminal 14.

When the purchase transaction is approved (either by mobile decoupledpayments account issuer 20 or on its behalf by merchant acquirer 16 ornetwork payments processor 26 according to established criteria), mobiledecoupled payments account issuer 20 causes an ACH transaction to beinitiated and sent via ACH payments processor 22 (as indicated at steps5H and 5I) to withdraw money in an amount corresponding to the purchasetransaction from the DDA of the accountholder at financial institution24.

When the DDA has sufficient funds for the purchase transaction (or isutilizing overdraft protection via a credit account or alternateaccount), the requested money is withdrawn from the DDA and deposited inthe mobile payments account of the accountholder (via ACH processor 22as indicated by steps 5J and 5K) where the money is held for latersettlement of the purchase transaction. In particular, the DDA isdebited and the mobile payments account is credited in an amountcorresponding to the purchase transaction. In accordance with theinvention, additional information regarding the purchase at POS terminal14, such as the merchant identity and possibly the date and time of thepurchase transaction, is transmitted, preferably with the ACHtransaction at steps 5H and 5I, to the accountholder's financialinstitution 24 where it is available for review by the accountholder(such as online) and is available for placement on a statementassociated with the DDA.

Additionally, the money deposited from the accountholder's DDA into thedecoupled mobile payments account is electronically marked and held as apending transaction. In this manner, the money is not available forwithdraw or transfer from the decoupled mobile payments account otherthan by a valid settlement request concerning the payments transactionat POS terminal 14 with which the money is associated.

When the DDA does not have sufficient funds for the purchase transaction(and does not have sufficient overdraft protection, etc.), a message issent back via ACH processor 22 (steps 5J and 5K) indicating that the ACHtransaction will not be completed with a funds transfer. In the event ofeither sufficient funds transferred or insufficient funds at the DDA,risk assessment data associated with the accountholder is updated(either at mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 or by sending theinformation concerning payment or non-payment to network processor 26 ormerchant acquirer 16 for updating the risk assessment data on theaccountholder). Additionally, in accordance with an aspect of theinvention, when the purchase transaction was approved and yet the DDAhad insufficient funds to cover the purchase transaction, the mobilepayments account issuer 20 bears the risk and responsibility of makingpayment and makes its own funds available to settle the purchasetransaction at the time of settlement.

The purchase transaction is settled when merchant acquirer 16 initiatesa settlement request to mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20. Inparticular, as illustrated, an electronic settlement instructionconcerning the purchase transaction is transmitted at step 5L frommerchant acquirer 16 to network payments processor 26 and from processor26 at step 5M to mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20. Fundscorresponding to the purchase transaction (less one or more fees, whichfees may include a transaction fee and/or a fee for taking the risk ofguaranteeing the transaction) are withdrawn from the accountholder'sdecoupled mobile payments account and transferred to processor 26 (step5N) (who will likely discount further the amount transmitted on via step5O to merchant acquirer 16 by a transaction fee). Ultimately, an amountof money corresponding to the purchase transaction discounted by feescharged by mobile payments account issuer 20, network payments processor26 and merchant acquirer 16 are deposited into a bank account of themerchant (via step P) at the merchant's financial institution 18. Itshould be understood that the settlement instruction corresponding tothe purchase transaction may be an individual message or part of a batchfile for batch processing by network payments processor 26.Additionally, it should be understood that the settlement may occur at atime that is later than the purchase transaction (such as later that dayor overnight) or settlement may occur in real- or substantially-realtime with the purchase transaction.

With additional reference to FIG. 6, process and information flow inembodiments of the present invention in which the decoupled mobilepayments account of the present invention utilizes an ACH-direct paymentaccount are illustrated and described.

As will be understood from the specification herein, during a purchasetransaction, mobile device 12 transmits an identifier, corresponding tothe mobile payments account, to the Merchant POS terminal 14 at step 6A.Information pertaining to the purchase transaction (such as the mobilepayments account identifier, merchant identification, monetary amount ofpurchase, and optionally date and time) is transmitted to merchantacquirer 14 at step 6B. Merchant acquirer 14, based upon the receivedmobile account identifier, determines the decoupled mobile accountissuer 20 and makes a risk assessment on behalf of issuer 20 forapproving or denying the transaction and/or transmits the informationpertaining to the purchase transaction to the issuer 20 at Step 6 C, inwhich case the decoupled mobile payments account issuer 20 makes a riskassessment concerning the transaction, approves or declines thetransaction, and transmits a corresponding approval/declined messageback to merchant acquirer 16 at step 6D. Merchant acquirer 16 transmitsthe message to POS terminal 14 at step 6E for completing authorizationor declination of the purchase transaction. In the event the purchasetransaction was approved or declined on behalf of the mobile decoupledpayments account issuer 20 by the merchant acquirer (or another entity)based upon criteria established by or in conjunction with mobiledecoupled payments account issuer 20, a message is electronically sentto mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 indicative of thetransaction and its approval or denial.

When the purchase transaction is approved, mobile decoupled paymentsaccount issuer 20 initiates an ACH transaction with ACH processor 22 forwithdrawing monetary funds in an amount corresponding to the purchasetransaction from the accountholder's DDA at Financial Institution 24 andtransmitting those funds to the decoupled mobile payments account wherethe funds are held for settlement of the purchase transaction, asindicated by steps 6F, 6G, 6H, and 6I. In particular, theaccountholder's DDA is debited in an amount corresponding to thepurchase transaction and the decoupled mobile payments account iscredited by that amount (less any fee allocated for the ACH transaction,if any such fee is allocated at the time of the transaction by the ACHprocessor). Additionally information pertaining to the purchasetransaction (such as merchant, date and/or time information) is alsoelectronically transmitted to the financial institution 24.

Settlement of the purchase transaction is initiated when the merchantassociated with POS terminal 14 or merchant acquirer 16 electronicallytransmits a settlement instruction. In one embodiment, illustrated assettlement initiated by the merchant acquirer 16 on behalf of themerchant, information pertaining to the purchase transaction istransmitted to the merchant's financial institution 18 as indicated atstep 6J. Financial institution 18 then initiates an ACH transaction viaACH processor 22 with mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 forsettlement of the purchase transaction and funds corresponding to thepurchase transaction, minus fees (which may include a transaction and/orfunds guarantee fee), are transferred from the mobile decoupled paymentsaccount of the accountholder to the merchant's bank account at Financialinstitution 18, as indicated by steps 6K, 6L,6M, and 6N. In particular,the mobile decoupled payments account is debited by an amountcorresponding to the purchase transaction and the bank account of themerchant at financial institution 18 is credited by that amountdiscounted by the fees charged by issuer 20 and others, such as merchantacquirer 16 (and possibly ACH processor 22).

Alternatively, settlement of the purchase transaction is accomplished bya computer-implemented push methodology when the merchant or, asillustrated, merchant acquirer 16 transmits a settlement instructiondirectly to decoupled mobile payments account issuer 20, as indicated atstep 6O. In response, mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20initiates an ACH transaction with the merchant's Financial Institution18 via ACH processor 22, as illustrated at steps 6P and 6Q, resulting inan amount corresponding and having been designated for the purchasetransaction, discounted by one or more fees charged by the mobilepayments account issuer 20, to be transmitted to an account of themerchant at financial institution 18. A message (not shown) regardingthe settlement may be transmitted back to merchant acquirer 16 (ormerchant) by issuer 20, ACH processor 22 or financial institution 18. Inparticular, an amount corresponding to the purchase transaction isdebited from the accountholder's decoupled mobile payments account atissuer 20 and credited to the account of the merchant at financialinstitution 18.

With additional reference to FIG. 7, process and information flow in analternate embodiment of the present invention in which the decoupledmobile payments account of the present invention utilizes an ACH-directpayment account and approach are illustrated and described.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 7, rather thanthe merchant or merchant acquirer 16 initiating the transaction directlywith mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20, the payment isinitiated from the mobile device 12 (step 7A) and the merchant acquirer16 receives information pertaining to the purchase transaction (step 7B)and transmits the information pertaining to the purchase transactiondirectly to the merchant's financial institution 18 (step 7C) (similarto an electronic check) who initiates an electronic transaction withmobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 via ACH processor 22 (steps7D and 7E). In accordance with the invention, upon receipt at mobiledecoupled payments account issuer 20 of the transaction, the transactionis held in a pending state while mobile decoupled payments accountissuer 20 initiates a second ACH transaction with financial institution24 for retrieving from the accountholder's DDA an amount of moneycorresponding to the purchase transaction as illustrated at steps 7F,7G, 7H and 7I. Upon receipt of the funds at issuer 20, the pendinginitial transaction is settled with money in an amount corresponding tothe purchase transaction, discounted by any fees of the mobile decoupledpayments account issuer 20, being transmitted via ACH processor 22 tothe merchant's account at the merchant's financial institution 18 asillustrated at steps 7J and 7K. Understandably, additional authorizationand/or settlement messages may be electronically sent to merchantacquirer 16 and/or the merchant, including for example an authorizationsignal from merchant acquirer 16 back to POS terminal 14 indicating thatthe form of payment is accepted.

With additional reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, the mobile decoupledpayments account and associated account(s) in accordance with thepresent invention are schematically illustrated and described.

With reference to FIG. 8, decoupled mobile payments account is denotedby reference numeral 84. As described, decoupled mobile payments account84 is a first account of an accountholder that is used via a mobiledevice 12 for making payments at local or remote points of saleterminals. The mobile decoupled payments account 84 is issued by anissuing entity 20. In embodiments of the invention, issuer 20 may be, ormay be affiliated with, a mobile carrier, a mobile device manufacturer,or a mobile operating system provider. As illustrated, a second accountdenoted generally by reference numeral 86 is associated with the mobilepayments account. As described herein, the second account preferablycomprises a Demand Deposit Account (DDA) 88 at a financial institution24 of the accountholder, where that DDA 88 is associated directly withthe mobile payments account 84 that is decoupled from the DDA or isassociated with the mobile payments account 84 via a debit account oridentifier 90, such as an account of a payments networkprovider/processor such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express orDiscover.

With reference to FIG. 9, additional features and embodiments of thedecoupled mobile payments account and associated accounts aregraphically illustrated and described.

Illustrated is the decoupled mobile payments account 84 with associatedpayments accounts 86. In particular, associated payments accountincludes a default account 92 that is one of DDA 88, Debit Account 90tied to DDA 88, a credit account 94. During the enrollment processdescribed above, the accountholder may enter one or more of accounts 88,90 and 94 and select one of them as a default account 92. Additionally,associated accounts 88 include one or more merchant accounts 96 storedin a merchant accounts folder 98. Each merchant account 96 correspondsto a particular merchant and is accepted only at the merchantcorresponding to the merchant account.

In accordance with the invention, money may be transferred to decoupledmobile payments account 84 in the manners described herein.Additionally, the accountholder may transfer funds directly to themobile payments account from another credit or debit account of theaccountholder (subject to fees) either directly via an ACH transactionor via a networks payment processor 26 such as Visa or MasterCard.Additionally, the accountholder may purchase or be given a merchantaccount 96 and transfer money to the merchant account 96. Additionally,others may transfer money into the accountholder's mobile paymentsaccount 84 using a wireless or Internet person-to-person transfer and,further, others may transfer money into a merchant account 96 of theaccountholder via a wireless or Internet person-to-person transfer. Sucha transfer from another to mobile payments account 84 or an associatedmerchant account 96 may include a message, such as a text-message sentby a messaging service such as SMS. In this way, for example, money owedto the accountholder may be paid directly to the accountholder's mobilepayments account 84 and merchant-specific monetary gifts from others maybe given directly to a merchant account 96 for use by mobile paymentsaccount 84.

Additionally, affiliate payments to an accountholder or payments forsales of a software application developed or owned by the accountholder, such as sales of mobile applications from an online applicationstore, may be paid to an accountholder's mobile payments account of thepresent invention.

With reference now to FIG. 10, embodiments of a computer-implementedmethod, such as may be implemented on server 32 of mobile decoupledpayments account issuer 20, of the present invention for facilitating avalue exchange are illustrated and described.

At step 100, mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 receives arequest to authorize a purchase transaction being made at a merchant POSterminal 14 with a mobile payments account 84 via mobile device 12.

At steps 102 and 104, the mobile decoupled payments account 84 and themerchant at which the purchase transaction is being made are identifiedfrom information received in the authorization request at step 102.

At step 106, server 32 determines, using the computer-implemented methodof the present invention, whether a merchant account 96 that correspondswith the merchant identified at step 104 is presently associated withpayments account 84. When it is determined at step 106 that a merchantaccount 96 of the merchant is associated with mobile payments account84, processing advances to step 108.

At step 108, it is determined whether the identified merchant accountcorresponding to the merchant at which the purchase transaction is beingmade has sufficient funds for processing the purchase transaction. Whenit is determined at step 108 that the merchant account does havesufficient funds for covering the purchase transaction, the purchasetransaction is approved and an authorization/approval message is sent tothe point of sale terminal 14 at step 110 and an amount of moneycorresponding to the purchase transaction is designated for the purchasetransaction at step 112 and thus made at least temporarily unavailablefor use or withdrawal other than upon receipt of a valid instruction tosettle the purchase transaction.

When it is determined at step 106 that a merchant account correspondingto the merchant at which the purchase transaction is being made is notpresently associated with the mobile decoupled payments account or it isdetermined at step 108 that the merchant account does not havesufficient funds to cover the purchase transaction, processing advancesto step 114.

At steps 114 server 32 utilizing the computer-implemented method of thepresent invention determines whether mobile payments account 84 hasavailable money. If money is available in mobile payments account 34, itis determined at step 116 whether the amount of money in mobile paymentsaccount 34 is sufficient to cover the purchase transaction. When it isdetermined at step 116 that sufficient money is available in mobilepayments account 84 to fund the purchase transaction, the purchasetransaction is authorized at step 118 and an amount of moneycorresponding to the purchase transaction is designated at step 120 andthus made at least temporarily unavailable for use or withdrawal otherthan upon receipt of a valid instruction to settle the purchasetransaction.

When it is determined at step 114 that money is not available in mobilepayments account 84 or that the funds in mobile payments account 84 areinsufficient to cover the purchase transaction, processing advances tostep 122. It should be understood that the illustrated steps 114 and 116may be combined into a single step.

At step 122, it is determined whether the default payment account 92 isa credit account 94. When a credit account 04 is the default paymentaccount 92, it is determined at step 124 whether the credit account wasissued by mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20 or another source.When the credit account has been issued by issuer 20, a determination ismade at step 126 whether to approve or decline the purchase transactionand a corresponding message is sent to POS terminal 14 at which thepurchase transaction is being made. The determination made at step 126may be based upon credit limit, available credit, fraud-controls, etc.When it is determined that the credit account 94 is an account ofanother issuer, processing is forwarded to the corresponding provider ofthe credit account 94, as indicated at step 128, and a processing feemay be charged.

When it is determined at step 122 that the default account is not acredit account, processing advances to step 130 and risk associated withthe purchase transaction being made is assessed. Such risk assessmentmay take into account recent and historical purchase activity, creditworthiness of the accountholder, the location and amount of thepurchase, etc. At step 132, a decision to approve or decline thepurchase transaction is made. When approved, processing advances to step134 and an approval message is sent to POS terminal 14 at which thepurchase transaction is being made and, in accordance with the inventionas described herein, mobile decoupled payments account issuer 20initiates an ACH transaction as indicated at step 136 with the DDA 88 ofthe accountholder at financial institution 24 to obtain funds forsettlement of the transaction. When at step 132 the purchase transactionis declined based upon the risk assessed at step 130, a messagedeclining the purchase transaction is sent to POS terminal 14 asindicated at step 138. Risk assessment data associated with theaccountholder is updated.

It should be understood and appreciated that the present invention maybe employed without one or more of the credit account 94 or merchantaccounts 96 and that processing would accordingly reflect the presenceor absence of such accounts. In particular, however, when such accountsare present, as illustrated and described, the computer-implementedmethod of the present invention first employs an available andsufficiently funded merchant-specific account, then the mobile paymentsaccount itself, and then the default account which, according to oneembodiment of the invention, is preferably a DDA. Additionally, althoughprocessing has been described as using one of the accounts 96, 84, or92, it should be understood that embodiments of the invention may permitprocessing the purchase transaction as a split-transaction such that afirst portion of the transaction is settled with funds designated fromone of the associated accounts 86, a second portion of the transactionis settled with funds designated from a different one of the associatedaccounts 86, and so on as necessary. For example, a specific merchantaccount 96 corresponding to the merchant at which the purchasetransaction is being made may have funds but not enough funds to coverthe purchase transaction. In such a case, the funds available in themerchant account 96 may first be exhausted and then computer-implementedmethod of the invention will next use any available funds in mobilepayments account 84 until those are exhausted and will then use defaultaccount 92 for any remainder amount owed. When a corresponding merchantaccount 96 is not present, processing may split a transaction to firstuse available non-designated funds from mobile payments account 84 and aremainder amount using default account 92.

From the foregoing, settlement of a purchase transaction approvedaccording to the computer-implemented methodology illustrated anddescribed in FIG. 10 will be understood. In particular, an amount ofmoney corresponding to the monetary amount of the purchase transactiondiscounted by one or more fees charged by the mobile decoupled paymentsaccount issuer 20 and as was designated from a merchant account 96, fromthe mobile payments account 84, or retrieved from DDA 88 will betransmitted to the merchant's bank account at financial institution 18.Settlements of split transactions will use funds having beencorrespondingly designated from different ones of the associatedaccounts 86. In the event of a credit transaction involving a creditaccount issued by or in conjunction with the issuer 20, money loaned tothe accountholder for completing the purchase transaction will betransmitted.

Statements indicating transactions made using mobile decoupled paymentsaccount 84 and details of those transactions are sent to theaccountholder on a periodic basis. Such statements may be electronicallydelivered to, or electronically retrieved via, a personal computer usedby the accountholder or via mobile device 12. Alternatively oradditionally, such statements may be mailed to a physical address of theaccountholder. Additionally, such statements may be incorporated with asubscriber statement issued by a mobile carrier associated with themobile payments account 84.

In accordance with an additional aspect of the present invention, themobile payments account 84 is (or is associated with) a credit accountthat makes an amount of credit available to the accountholder for makingpurchases and paying bills. A Demand Deposit Account (DDA) from aninstitution other than the issuer of the mobile payments account 84 islinked by the account holder to the mobile payments account 84. As isknown, purchase authorization decisions are based on the availablecredit limit of the account 84. In particular, however, in accordancewith the invention, each purchase transaction posted to the creditaccount 84 automatically results in a monetary amount corresponding tothe purchase amount being presented via the ACH network to the linkedDDA 84 to withdraw a monetary amount corresponding to the purchase.Accordingly, this particular embodiment of the invention operates toautomatically keep the full available credit limit available so long asthe DDA has sufficient funds for funding or satisfying the amount of thepurchase transaction. In particular, according to this embodiment of theinvention, the accountholder does not have an option or choice to leaveamounts corresponding to purchases on the credit account. When, however,the DDA has non-sufficient funds for satisfying the ACH request, thesystem of the present invention first re-presents the matter. In theevent the re-presentment fails, then the amount corresponding to thepurchase transaction remains on the credit account and is owed by andbilled to the account holder (subject to interest and other feesaccording to the terms of the account holder agreement with the issuerof the account). Accordingly, in one embodiment, the amount charged tothe credit account reduces the credit available and, in a subsequentrequest for authorization of a purchase using account 84, the system ofthe present invention will use the available credit amount indetermining whether to authorize a transaction. Alternatively, anyamount owed on the credit account will result in subsequent purchaseattempts with the account 84 being declined until the balance if paid infull. Accordingly, the invention provides risk mitigation for the issuerand built-in credit restraints for the account holder.

In a variation, in the case in which the first account—the mobilepayments account 84—is a credit account, an account for storing funds(such as a stored value or prepaid type of account) provided by the sameissuer (or partnership) is linked to the credit account. Purchaseauthorizations may be made based upon comparison of the purchase amountwith a fixed credit-limit amount, an available credit limit amount, orthe sum of an amount stored in the linked account and a fixed creditlimit or available credit. As described, an embodiment of the inventionrequires that all amounts credited to the credit account are processedfor payment via an account that is linked to the credit account. In thisparticular embodiment, settlement processing first takes intoconsideration the amount of funds in the stored value/prepaid accountand withdraws or places a hold on funds in the stored value/prepaidaccount and then makes an ACH presentment to a Demand Deposit Account(DDA) linked to the stored value/prepaid account for any remainingmonetary amount required to satisfy or cover the monetary amount of thepurchase transaction. As described, in the event of non-sufficient fundsin the DDA, any amount of the purchase transaction not funded from thestored value/prepaid account is applied to the credit account, thuslowering the amount of available credit or preventing authorization offuture transactions with account 84 until the balance is paid in full.Alternatively, prior to making an ACH presentment to the DDA, anyremaining amount of the purchase transaction that is not covered byfunds available in account 84 are first credited to the credit accountand then an ACH presentment of that amount is made to the DDA. Asdescribed, in the event of non-sufficient funds in the DDA, any amountof the purchase transaction not funded from the stored value/prepaidaccount is applied to the credit account, thus lowering the amount ofavailable credit or preventing authorization of future transactions withaccount 84 until the balance is paid in full.

As stated above, the mobile payment account 84 may store funds. Thus,the account 84 itself operates as a stored value or prepaid type ofaccount. In one embodiment of the invention, authorization decisions arebased on a fixed limit of credit risk that the issuer of the account 84is willing to undertake. Alternatively, electronic processor-baseddecisions to authorize or decline a purchase transaction being attemptedwith mobile payment account 84 may compare the monetary amount of thepurchase transaction with the sum of the amount of money stored in themobile payment account and a fixed amount of credit risk that the issueris willing to undertake for the account holder. Accordingly, if themonetary amount of the purchase transaction is less than or equal to theamount of funds stored in the mobile payment account 84, the transactionis authorized. Similarly, if the monetary amount of the purchasetransaction is less than or equal to the sum of the amount of fundsstored in the mobile payments account plus a fixed amount correspondingto credit risk that the issuer (or its partner(s)) is/are willing toundertake for the account holder, then the purchase transaction isauthorized and a corresponding approval message is transmitted.Alternatively, if the monetary amount of the purchase transactionexceeds the sum of the monetary amount stored in the mobile paymentsaccount 84 and the amount of credit risk that the issuer (or itspartner(s)) is/are willing to undertake for the account holder, then thepurchase transaction is declined and a corresponding declined message istransmitted.

Additionally, as described above, the mobile payments account 84,capable of storing funds, and a credit account linked directly to themobile payments account may be issued by the same issuer. The issuer maybe in partnership with one or more other entities in such offering. Insuch a scenario, decisions and operations concerning authorization ofpurchase transactions may be made as just described. In accordance witha particular embodiment of the invention, funds for settling a purchasetransaction may be taken first from funds stored in or in associationwith the payments account 84 with a remainder of the amount owed beingapplied to the linked credit account. In accordance with a particularaspect of one embodiment of the invention, as described above, anyamounts posted to the credit account result in the system of the presentinvention automatically presenting an ACH request to a DDA 88 of theaccount holder, at another financial institution, that is linked to thecredit account with no ability of the accountholder to choose to leave acharge applied to the credit account. Funds withdrawn from the linkedDDA 88 are used for settlement or, as will be understood, to compensatefor settlement already made by the issuer of mobile payments account 84.In accordance with the invention, only when the DDA 88 hasnon-sufficient funds is an amount applied to the credit account (which,in turn, reduces the available credit used when determining whether toauthorize additional purchases). It should be understood that aspects ofthe invention may be employed in both open-loop or closed-loop paymentsystems and are applicable to a wide variety of mobile and non-mobilecommunication, media and social networking accounts.

In a variation, when a credit account is linked to a prepaid accountaccording to the present invention, processing during settlement of apurchase transaction involving a monetary amount involves automaticallyretrieving funds from the first account to cover at least a portion ofthe monetary amount corresponding to the purchase transaction to theextent funds are available in the prepaid account, then automaticallyinitiating an ACH presentment to withdraw money, from the demand depositaccount, corresponding to a remaining monetary amount comprising themonetary amount less the amount of funds retrieved from the firstaccount, and then, when the demand deposit account has non-sufficientfunds to fund said remaining monetary amount and the ACH presentmentultimately fails, charging the remaining amount to the credit account,thereby loaning the remaining monetary amount to the account holder.With reference to FIG. 11, a system and method for allocating risk,allocating fees, or allocating risk and corresponding fees areillustrated and described.

In particular, in accordance with an aspect of the invention, asdescribed, a mobile payments account issuer or provider 20 may be afinancial institution. That provider 20 may itself provide financialservices include Demand Deposit Accounts (DDAs) to its customers.According to the invention, as set forth at step 140 of FIG. 11, whenprocessing a transaction made with the mobile decoupled payment accountof the present invention, system 10 determines whether the DDA coupledwith the mobile payments account is a DDA of a financial providerassociated with provider 20. When it is determined at step 140 that themobile decoupled debit account of the present invention is an accountassociated with provider 20, processing advances to step 142 and thefinancial risk (such as a guarantee between authorization andsettlement) is weighted to the financial account provider associatedwith provider 20. Such a weighting may be any percentage allocationagreed upon between the financial account provider and the mobileprovider (include 100%/0), but preferably the financial providerreceives the greater benefit since the DDA is an account of thatfinancial provider. Additionally, a fee or fees associated with thetransaction are correspondingly weighted to the financial provider. Itshould be understood that the risk allocation and fee allocation maymatch or not match. For example, one scenario specifically contemplatedand within the scope of the present invention is that the financialprovider bears all risk for its own DDA accounts but still shares asmall percentage of the fee(s) with the mobile provider for transactionsinvolving its DDAs. The allocated fees may include interchange orinterchange-type fees only, transaction processing fees and/orassessments only, or a combination of interchange or interchange-typefees and transaction processing fees/assessments.

When it is determined at step 140 that the mobile payments account usedin the transaction is not coupled with a DDA of the financial providerassociated with the mobile provider, processing advances to step 144 atwhich the risk and fee(s) associated with the transaction are weightedtoward the mobile provider. Again, such a weighting may be anypercentage allocation agreed upon between the financial provider and themobile provider (include 0%/100%), but preferably the mobile providertakes the greater risk and receives the greater percentage of the fee(s)(although not all). It will be appreciated that numerous arrangementsare possible within the scope of the invention.

This unique risk and fee allocation aspect of the invention enablesbenefits a financial partner by enabling it to grow its fees through themobile channel without sacrificing or significantly sacrificing feeincome related to payments that it would receive on its DDAs. The mobileprovider gains the support and knowledge of a financial partner that maybe an account-issuing partner and gains the ability to work with asingle financial provider in a close relationship and does not need topartner with all financial partners or with a network of financialpartners to enable mobile payments, thereby giving it greaterflexibility in establishing fee allocation with its financial partner.

Although the unique risk and fee allocation aspect of the invention hasbeen described with respect to a mobile carrier provider and financialprovider, variations are possible and within the scope of the presentinvention. For example, in addition to the mobile partner being awireless carrier, a mobile handset maker, or a provider of a mobileoperating system, the mobile partner could be a joint venture of one ormore such entities. Additionally, it will be appreciated that the uniquerisk and fee allocation features of the invention may be employed withfirst and second parties of other or different types of entities. Forexample, a payments processing company (such as a company that processespayments for banks) for a plurality of financial institutions mayestablish a relationship with a mobile provider such that all financialinstitutions serviced by the payments processing company get the benefitof a greater percentage of payments fee revenue for mobile payments. Forexample, a bank, corresponding to a bank account associated with amobile payment account, that is serviced by the payments processingcompany would receive a higher percentage of a payments fee than would abank, corresponding to a bank account associated with the mobile paymentaccount, which is not serviced by the payments processing company. In avariation of this approach, only those banks that are already servicedby the payments processing company when the payments processing companyforms an agreement with a mobile partner benefit from the beneficial feeallocation, whereas banks that adopt services of the payments processingcompany after the relationship with a mobile partner is formed do notbenefit from the more beneficial fee allocation. As another example, acompany that originates payments accounts for a mobile payment networkor provider may get a more beneficial fee allocation according to theprinciples of the present invention.

From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all ends and objects hereinabove set forth togetherwith the other advantages which are apparent and which are inherent tothe structure.

As described, it will and should be understood that the invention may beemployed with open-loop payments networks, closed-loop payment networks,online networks, and/or offline networks and may require, involve oremploy a signature or PIN-entry at the POS terminal (or suchrequirements may be waived) without limitation. Additionally, it shouldbe understood that certain aspects of the invention may be employed andare useful for payments initiated with an article other than a mobilecommunications device, such as an NFC-enabled article, tag, watch,wrist-band, bracelet, key-chain, ring, etc.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are ofutility and may be employed without reference to other features andsubcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of theclaims.

Since many possible embodiments may be made of the invention withoutdeparting from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matterherein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to beinterpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.

1. A system comprising: a mobile communications device; a user-interfaceaccessible on said mobile communications device, wherein said userinterface facilitates enrollment by a user of the mobile communicationsdevice in a mobile payment program, wherein said mobile payment programenables the mobile communications device to be used to make payments forpurchases at point of sale terminals in retail stores; wherein saidsystem enables (i) a plurality of payment accounts to be associated withsaid mobile communications device and (ii) functionality accessible atthe mobile communications device that enables the user to use the mobilecommunications device to select one of the plurality of payment accountsfor use in making payment for a purchase using the mobile communicationsdevice; a user-account, wherein said user-account enables electronicaccess to a service that is accessible via the mobile communicationsdevice, a first payment account, wherein said first payment account isstored in said system in association with said user-account and whereinsaid first payment account is used to make payments to said source ofsaid service; wherein the user of the mobile communications device usesthe mobile communications device to enroll into said mobile paymentprogram, wherein said user-account and said first payment accountassociated with said user-account are pre-existing to the enrollment bythe user into said mobile payment program, said system enables, duringsaid enrollment into said mobile payment program, an option for the userto select, for use as a source of funds for payments made using saidmobile communications device, (i) the first payment account or (ii) toenter account information of an account of the user other than saidfirst payment account, wherein, during said enrollment into said mobilepayment program, said first payment account is optionally selected bythe user as the source of funds for payments made using said mobilecommunications device; wherein, based on said enrollment, said systemenables assignment of a unique encoded identifier, wherein said uniqueencoded identifier is stored in said mobile communications device, andwherein, when said mobile communications device is used by the user tomake a payment for a purchase in a retail store, said encoded identifieris transmitted from said mobile communications device to at least one ofa point of sale terminal in the retail store and an electronic server inan electronic payment system used by the retail store and said encodedidentifier is used to identify said first payment account so that saidfirst payment account is used in processing the payment.
 2. The systemof claim 1 further comprising a second payment account, whereininformation indicative of said second payment account is stored in saidsystem and said second payment account is available for selection by theuser using said mobile communications device for use in making paymentswith the mobile communications device.
 3. The system of claim 2, whereinuse of the second payment account for making payments for purchases hasan associated credit risk to a provider of the second payment account,and wherein said credit risk is borne at least in part by a source ofsaid mobile communications device.
 4. The system of claim 3, whereinsaid use of said second payment account generates a fee and wherein saidprovider of said mobile communications device receives at least aportion of said fee.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein use of the secondpayment account for making payments for purchases has an associatedcredit risk to a provider of the second payment account, and wherein asource of said mobile communications device participates at least inpart in said credit risk.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein said use ofsaid second payment account generates a fee and wherein said provider ofsaid mobile communications device receives at least a portion of saidfee.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein use of the second payment accountfor making payments for purchases has an associated credit risk to aprovider of the second payment account, wherein a credit amountcorresponding to said credit risk is financed at least in part by saidsource of said mobile communications device.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein said use of said second payment account generates a fee andwherein said provider of said mobile communications device receives atleast a portion of said fee.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein saidsecond payment account comprises a credit account.
 10. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said second payment account comprises a decoupled debitaccount.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein said use of said secondpayment account generates a fee and wherein said provider of said mobilecommunications device receives at least a portion of said fee.
 12. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein said provider of said second payment accountis said source of the mobile communications device.
 13. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said provider of said second payment account comprisesa financial institution.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobilecommunications device comprises a cellular telephone.
 15. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said mobile communications device comprises a wearableelectronics device.
 16. The system of claim 2, wherein said secondaccount comprises a prepaid account.
 17. The system of claim 2, whereinan authorization to approve a use of said second account for makingpayment for a purchase transaction comprises comparing a monetary amountof said purchase transaction with a sum of (i) a balance of fundsavailable for use by said second account and (ii) an amount of availablecredit.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein a settlement of saidpurchase transaction using said second account comprises a combinationof withdrawing funds from said balance of funds and using said availablecredit.
 19. The system of claim 2, wherein said second account enablesaccess to a balance of monetary funds and to available credit for payingfor a purchase transaction using said second account.